Lögberg-Heimskringla - 10.09.2004, Side 11

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 10. september 2004 • 11
PHOTO: STEINÞÓR GUÐBJARTSSON
The Icelanders go for a lunch break together. Clockwise from left: Eggert Valmundarson,
Ragnar Pálsson, Halldór Eiríksson, Þorkell Erlingsson, Gestur Valgarðsson, Guðmundur
Möller and Sigurður Harðarson.
The city for Icelandic
engineers and architects
Since last fall about 10 to
12 Icelandic engineers and
architects have been working
in the Bechtel office in Mon-
treal because of Alcoa’s hydro-
powered Fjardaal smelter proj-
ect in Eastern Iceland.
Last year Alcoa chose
Bechtel and its partner, the Ice-
landic engineering consortium
HRV (Hönnun, Rafhönnun and
VST) to design and build its
new plant in Reyðarfjörður in
East Iceland. The Icelandic
arcitects consortium TBL
architects (Tark - Teiknistofan,
Batteríið and Landslag) is also
involved in the work to design
an ultra-efficient plant that has
minimal environmental
impact.
The Icelanders are happy
in Montreal and like working
there. “We are having a very
good time here,” senior
mechanical engineer Gestur
Valgarðsson says. “We are part
of a large group and some of us
will be here for a long period
of time.”
Building a bridge
“Montreal is a great city,”
says Hilmar Gunnarsson, man-
ager of sales and marketing of
the Icelandic software compa-
ny OZ Communications in
Montreal.
OZ Communications start-
ed in Montreal in 2000 and
employs about 45 people there.
OZ works closely with the
world’s leading mobile opera-
tors, instant messaging (IM)
service providers, handset
providers and standardization
forums, as stated on the web-
site www.oz.com.
In the end of August OZ
announced an industry fírst;
“with a pre-loaded IM Client
on the Nokia 6800 messaging
phone, T-Mobile USA sub-
scribers aie now able to access
the four major IM providers
(AOL, ICQ, MSN, and
Yahoo!) via one device. Pro-
viding access to, and billing
for, the IM services is the OZ
Mobile IM Gateway.”
In other words, one can
write a message on his comput-
er and it appears right away on
the computer it is sent to. “We
are building a bridge between
the world of the home comput-
er and the world of the cell
phones regarding instant mes-
saging,” Hilmar says.
Hilmar Gunnarsson started
working for the company in
1999 and has been in Montreal
since 2001. His wife Guðný
Kiistín Hauksdóttir is a board
member of ICC-Q and they
have two children, Haukur
Breki (6) and Hilmar Goði,
bom earlier this year. “It is
good to live and work in Mon-
treal,” Hilmar says.
PHOTO; STEINÞOR GUÐBJARTSSON
Hilmar Gunnarsson has worked in Montreal since 2001.
Icelandic
free online
The University of Iceland
has launched an online begin-
ners’ coUrse in lcelandic. The
website is www.icelandic.hi.is
and it is free.
Námsflokkar Reykjavíkur,
Reykjavik’s Municipal Centre
for Adult Education,
(www.namsflokkar.is or
www.vefskoli.is) also offers
courses in lcelandic online.
45 Durand Road Wpg, MB R2J 3T1
Phone: (204) 654-1361
Toll FreE: 1 (800) 337-6867
Larry Finnson
Chris Emety
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